I made this little soaker sack last week to use up some Three Irish Girls Peregrine Merino that I had lying around. The variegated color is Rhiannon, the green trim is Dolan. This yarn is from when 3IG was still called Irish Baby Knits, so I think the colorway is a little bit different now.

It still needs the drawstring, but I’m making a little hat with the leftover yarn first and then whatever is still left after that I will use for the drawstring.

I finished a pair of shorties recently and finally got the photos uploaded. They are really cute if I do say so myself. I knit them without looking at patterns, just sorting it out as I went, and I am pleased with how they turned out. They are Peace Fleece in a dark blue color. I forget how sensitive I am to Peace Fleece. I can’t touch my eyes at all after using it without washing my hands or they itch like crazy for days.

They have a pocket on one side and the drawstring is made of dark blue and grey Peace Fleece, braided together (one blue, one grey per strand). It makes for a sturdy drawstring. I still have not worked out how to precisely center the drawstring. I think I need to start with p2 instead of k2 on the ribbing for it to work properly.

I did a little bit different short row shaping than usual, I put some little short rows at the top back and then spaced out some wide ones over the rest of the rear. All in all there is about 1.5″ more height in the back than in the front. I think this will work out just fine. The cuffs are seed stitch cuffs and the top of the pocket is 4 rows of garter stitch.

I used stitch markers from my Twilight stitch marker club (from VelvetHippo on Etsy); on the sides I used the little black beaded ones (representing Edward’s eyes when he hasn’t fed recently) and for the gusset increases I used some of the flowers from the Meadow set. I love these markers. I have used some like this recently that are very flimsy; these are nice and sturdy and very pretty to boot :)

I finished the skirty last night! I tried a few different methods for the skirt before settling on this one, and I really like it. The ruffle is adorable, although it took forever to finish – doubling the number of stitches per row makes each row take a lot longer! The bind off probably took an hour or so, which is just crazy. But – it is really lovely!!

I’m working on a few things at the moment, all with the Three Irish Girls Carys BFL I got last week. I love this yarn. Sharon at 3IG helped me pick colors that coordinate well together, so I ended up with Maureen (pink/purple/brown) and Megan (pink), and Isla (green/purple/brown) and Isla Purple (uh.. purple). The Megan also works really well with the Nora on Springvale that I used for a baby sweater, and the Isla Purple goes passably well with the Maureen. Sharon gives excellent color advice and she is really great to work with!

Both projects are giving me problems, mostly because instead of using one pattern I am just putting together bits and pieces from lots of different ones. This post is very photo-heavy, although they are mostly all WIPs.Read the rest of this entry »

I dyed some Knitpicks bulky yarn at the Eastside Spinners dye day a few months ago. It didn’t turn out the way I anticipated – the red washed out to become a kind of bright magenta – but it’s not bad. I started out making a Pinwheel Blanket. After finishing the first ball, I realized I wouldn’t have enough yarn to make it a reasonable size, and I didn’t want to buy coordinating yarn to go with it to make it bigger. Then I thought about making a child’s Pinwheel Sweater but again I wasn’t sure I’d have enough yarn, and I didn’t want to mess about adjusting stitch and row counts to take into account the bulky weight yarn.

So, I settled on my fallback project when I have hand dyed wool – longies. First, I attempted to make approximately medium-sized longies, but this resulted in absolutely hideous pooling/flashing:

I kept thinking it would stop on the next row… or the next one… or the next… but finally reconciled myself to the fact that it wasn’t going to change, so I ripped it out.

This time, I decided to go with a size small – if I have extra yarn I can always make a matching hat.

I’m much happier with the outcome this time, although it is tending toward a bit wider stripes than I would like now that I’m in the stockinette portion. Oh well – it’s not awful, and I am really enjoying the colors :)

Finished this pair of shorties. I think we decided the yarn is Marr Haven. I didn’t really care for it. Too rustic and it feels funny to me. Makes a nice pair of shorties though :) The dye job is lovely also. I used all of the blue but still have a bunch of green/variegated leftover. Not sure I like how it pooled but not bothered enough to fix it. Also wish I’d done garter instead of seed stitch for the cuffs but again – not so much on the “care enough to fix” spectrum :)

Vanilla Spice is on hold. I’ve started one arm and am maybe 1/2 way finished. Started a baby kimono from Mason Dixon Knitting out of Manos Cotton Stria for a co-worker’s baby gift. It’s a girl – so I’m striping pink, green and blue. It looks awesome. I think. Feels nice too. Soft but not velvety. I’m hoping it can handle gentle wash/cold. I’ll do up a swatch and test before I gift the item. We’ll see. Either way I think the mum-to-be will handle it with care so I don’t feel awful using a “hand wash, spin excess water in spin cycle, machine dry” yarn.